This month’s blogs and teachings encourage building strong and stable foundations, whether in yoga, exercise, nutrition or even goal-setting. These facets of wellness do not need to be separate. To build a strong body and mind through any of these practices, you must have a solid base.

I see many yoga students, exercise enthusiasts and people in general wanting to rush to the end. They want to achieve advanced poses, lift heavy weights or overhaul their diets before they have mastered the foundations. Not only is rushing to the end unsustainable, but it also can be dangerous.

This week, we will explore the foundations of building a strong yoga practice. In the following weeks, we will examine the foundations of exercise and nutrition.

Last week marked my completion of another 50 hour block of advanced yoga training; which I have been taking part in for the past year. I spent the week really getting to know my mind, including all of its little tricks and all the ways it tries to hide things from me. It was also an opportunity to evaluate the areas of my life that are working and uncover the aspects that aren’t. Overall, the experience has created a desire to share some of my takeaways from the week, not only to put down on paper what I think I have learned, but also to inspire others to become happier and healthier through the process.

Are you happy? Are you truly happy at the deepest level of your being? Sure, on a superficial level, happiness is relatively easy to achieve or at least to project outwardly, but on the inside it’s a whole different story.

Outward happiness can be achieved through a smile, purchasing a new possession, even a new relationship. What they all have one thing in common however, is that they are temporary. When I get what I want I’m happy. When I avoid what I don’t want I’m happy. When I’m in love I’m happy. But what happens when life doesn’t go how I want it to? I feel angst, I feel loss, I feel less than, I feel sadness. Today, I’ll talk about the “Kleshas” of the “five afflictions” responsible for causing suffering and ultimately, unhappiness.Read more

How to manage stress? Drop your expectations and assumptions to the floor, period

Expectations and assumptions are natural functions of the human mind and can exist at a deep and unconscious level. They prepare and inform us how to act and can protect us from emotional pain, they serve a function. Expectations and assumptions however, are core contributors to our unhappiness and prevent us from living in the present moment.

Think back to a minute ago before you started reading this blog; when you read the title, what did you expect to find, what did you assume it would be about? That answer is different for all of us, so take a moment and see if you can recall your initial thoughts that came to mind.

Maybe you thought to yourself “I expect this to be good or I expect this to be bad.” Or maybe you assumed that this blog would only be related to yoga and not applicable if you don’t have a yoga practice. Are any of these thoughts right or wrong? I do not know the answer, but neither do any of us until we actually experience this article, event or moment first hand.

I can hear you saying already “But it’s good to have expectations about things, we should expect things to be good and avoid things we expect to be bad.”

What is meditation? It an old esoteric practice reserved for monks chanting in caves, atop a mountain- it’s weird, it’s something for hippies and is practiced for hours on end, right?

Well, not exactly, at least not anymore. Meditation is actually quite normal, and has been practiced by the great leaders of the world; Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi and Russell Wilson (the Super-Bowl winning quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks).

I’m kidding about throwing Wilson into the mix with these others, but did so for a reason; meditation has become mainstream. It is now being practiced by yogis, home-makers and professional athletes alike. The reasons for one’s own practice may differ; from the search for enlightenment, to managing stress, to improved athletic/professional performance.

So what do these very different motivators all have in common? The quieting of the mind and the search for a clearer, sharper reality. If you’ve never meditated before, the concept of sitting still can be quite scary, so let’s get to the topics at hand and learn what mediation is and why the hell to do it.

More so than ever, many of us are experiencing constant stress. It’s a hot topic these days, as the research has shown that stress is literally killing us. Students are constantly coming to me asking for tips, techniques and ways to be unstressed, “just like myself.”

Firstly, the assumption that yoga teachers or experienced meditators don’t experience stress could not be farther from the truth.

I personally experience stress daily- from deadlines, to getting upset in traffic, to disagreeing with my roommate (I originally came to yoga to help with the stress I was experiencing from corporate sales). The main difference between a student and a teacher is that the teacher has learned how to manage stress and learned to notice when they are experiencing stress. It’s not like the tension isn’t there, it’s just seen and then regulated appropriately- and don’t forget, it’s is the teacher’s job to model how to be on the outside in order to help others create calmness on the inside. So do your best and try to not to compare yourself to how someone else “appears” to be on the outside. Let’s spend some time looking at what stress is, what causes it and how to help manage it.

Remember, learning to manage stress is a process which takes mental and physical training, and won’t “just happen.”